The Walk of Life

It was our youngest daughter that inspired this post. One day she just announced that even if she gets married, she would not want to have children! Why? we asked. She said that she could not stand kids for they are naughty, disobedient and noisy! In addition she also mentioned that she realized what a hard time she gave us while growing-up from age 10 to 16! Wow! we thought she never realized it.

Was it the changing trends in parenting, life-styles, the busy parents and lax discipline or just signs of the time, we too discovered that it was much easier bringing up our first two who had their teens in the late 80's as compared to our youngest who left her teens only about 2 years ago. Brining-up kids is such a challenging task that nowadays there is a whole series of TV Shows on parenting and how these parents are driven to their wits end taking care of their own kids.

A pastor friend of mine sent me a rather interesting excerpt on parenting with a spiritual twist and its humorous! Here is the excerpt :-

Whenever your children are out of control, you can take comfort from the thought that even God's omnipotence did not extend to His own children.

After creating heaven and earth, God created Adam and Eve.

And the first thing he said was "DON'T

"Don't what? Adam replied.

"Don't eat the forbidden fruit." God said.

"Forbidden fruit? We have forbidden fruit? Hey Eve..we have forbidden fruit..!

"No Way!"

"Yes way !"

"DO NOT eat the fruit !" said God

"Why ?"

"Because I am your Father and I said so !" God replied, wondering why He hadn't stopped creation after making the elephants.

A few minutes later, God saw His children having an apple break and He was ticked !

"Didn't I tell you not to eat the fruit ?" God asked.

"Uh huh," Adam replied.

>Then why did you ?" said the Father

"I don't know," said Eve

"She started it ! " Adam said.

"Did not ! " answered Eve

"Yes she did" Adam answered

"DID NOT" Eve said

Having had it with the two of them, God's punishment was that Adam and Eve should have children of their own.

Thus the pattern was set and it has never changed.

BUT THERE IS REASSURANCE IN THE STORY !

If you have persistently and lovingly tried to give your children wisdom and they haven't taken it, don't be hard on yourself.

If God had trouble raising children, what makes you think it would be a piece of cake for you ?

THINGS TO THINK ABOUT

1. You spend the first two years of their life teaching them to walk and talk. Then you spend the next sixteen telling them to sit down and shut up.

2. Grandchildren are God's reward for not killing your own children.

3. Mothers of teens now know why some animals eat their young.

4. Children seldom misquote you.

In fact, they usually repeat word for word what you shouldn't have said.

5. The main purpose of holding children's parties is to remind yourself that there are children more awful than your own.

6. We childproofed our homes, but they are still getting in.

ADVICE FOR THE DAY:

Be nice to your kids. They will choose your nursing home one day.

AND FINALLY:

IF YOU ! HAVE A LOT OF TENSION AND YOU GET A HEADACHE, DO WHAT IT SAYS ON THE ASPIRIN BOTTLE:

"TAKE TWO ASPIRIN" AND "KEEP AWAY FROM CHILDREN"!!!!!

The aftermath of our recent General Election tells me that there are many Malaysians (Malay, Chinese, Indians, Others) love this nation. They risk threats of May 13 to cast their votes to have their say in this nation and convey to the Barisan Government that we do not want racial politics!

Perhaps many Malaysians and foreigners know of Malaysiakini, Jeff Ooi, Lim Kit Siang blogs and read them to get alternative views on current state of affairs in Malaysia, but there is another great site/blog that we must read. It is none other than The Other Malaysia which basically focus on national issues from the academic view point covering culture, history as well as politics. It receives the Honourable Mention in the 2007 Brass Crescent Awards for Best South/Southeast Asia Site.

One particular article that I enjoyed reading was Abdullah's Bible! I am sure for many senior folks you must have heard of our famous writer Munshi Abdullah and it is about him. For those of you who are Malaysians who are living overseas or migrated, you will get a dosage of what is happening in Malaysia through the eyes of a group of Malaysian intellectuals, thus giving a balanced view of current issues! Check it out and read for yourself!

In life, we must have Perspective. A lot of things are rather Relative. What is normal in one culture is excessive in another. It is hard to say what is right and what is wrong if we do not keep things in context or in perspective.

The Streets of London is one of my favourite songs which relates to perspective in certain ways. The lyrics is good and they encourage us to view life in perspective and so are the following Photos which show us how much food in a month different people consume in various parts of the world. What comes to your mind after viewing these pictures?

Marriage is about the Union of two individuals, a man and a woman trasversing body, mind and spirit! It is a very good thing says God and I totally agree. The latest Wedding in the family was our eldest daughter Sharlene and Chit. Coming May 31st 2008, it will be the second wedding in the family and it is between my nephew Timmy and the love of his life Deborah. To us, you cannot find a most compatible pair on earth and we are all very happy for them.

Having gone through our own marriage more than 35 years ago, I have to say that it was all so simple then but still rather stressful and overwhelming going through it all. With modern weddings, it is such a grandiose affair and I have to say rightly so for this is the most important step taken by both bride and groom. There are so much choices today.

Timmy and Deborah had planned theirs months ahead and it was very wise of them to use professional wedding planners to help them planned out every tiny bits of details for their Wedding. We are all very excited about this family event of the year. A union of two beautiful people.

I did a short stinge of teaching at a local College for Foreign Students in a Business Administration Class not too long ago. From their Text Books, there seems to be a full chapter on Social Responsibility of Corporations and Private Companies. During my time, this was never mentioned in our studies or text books! I am glad that this is being taught in Business Schools.

What I discovered from real life experiences here in Malaysia and especially as a care-giver who used to bring a handicapped person out to do shopping at our local Malls, that there is very little awareness to handicapped people by the Management of such Malls. Firstly I would like to highlight one case where after a written request to them to provide handicapped parking lots at their premises, they really did that within a month! To them I wish to say a big thank-you and it reminded me of certain aspects of Social Responsibility being practiced.

Then there are some Malls where initially I could park at the handicapped lots, but now unable to! Reason given is that these are reserved for handicapped drivers only! Now, I fully agree to provide for handicapped drivers but at least leave one or two for people like us. Even with a care-giver to handle the wheel-chair it is still quite a challenge to go from car park into the main shopping area in addition to the difficulties finding a nearby parking lot. I just wish that they do give people like us some considerations. Guess I have to write to the Management to appeal.

Other observations that reflect this lack of awareness towards handicapped people are at Qeues at check-out lanes after shopping or at service counters. Even when the Qeue is long, we have to wait for our turns whereas in other Countries, we were given preferential treatment! Our worst experienced was at our KLIA! Can you imagine me having to handle a baggage trolley and a wheel-chair? Just could not handle that and I had to approached some officers on duty to help and even then they agreed reluctantly! Then at the qeue to pay for the parking ticket, we were made to wait in the long line of people because on that particular day, the auto-pay machines were out of commission! Of course we can wait in line but just noting the difference here and in other Countries where at most times the handicapped person is served first.

One surprising thing is that at our University Hospital Car-park, there is not a single handicapped parking lot! Can you believe this? Check it out yourself! We seldom go shopping over the week-end at the Malls just to avoid the crowd! In most modern Malls today in Kuala Lumpur they do have handicapped parking lots but the difficulty we faced is another set of issues! This particular Mall do not have travelators to go higher floors but instead provides escalators which wheel-chair cannot go, but they have lifts for that! What is the problem then? We discovered that quite a lot of people pushed their shopping trolleys from the Supermart into these lifts to go further shopping at other floors, using these trolleys as carriers! Their children sitting in the trolley together with their goodies! Already it is difficult for us to enter a lift which is not too spacious with the rushing crowd besides having these trolleys inside! At times we had to wait for four changes of lifts before we could get into one and that was at the mercy of some kind souls who allowed us in! Many of the people just rushed in immediately the door opens leaving us behind and yet they gave us a look that sort of saying what are you doing standing there! At times we do come across kind people who gave us preference but this seems to be rather rare.

One last point I wish to make is that, Management of Malls should consider the total friendliness of their premises to handicapped people rather than focusing on bits here and there. After all the whole place belongs to them unlike shops where everyone owner just take care of their own space. For this reason we prefer to shop at Malls for they are more handicapped friendly than our local shops! However Mall Management did not do enough or over looked bits of spaces here and there where the terrain is difficult for the handicapped on a wheel-chair. It is a case of continuity in the design layout.

What we suggest is that you able bodied folks just keep your eyes open and observe whenever you go to the Malls to shop. Perhaps you may understand the difficulties or in today's politically correct word, challenges that a care-giver and a wheel-chair bound person faces. Do you think this is too much to ask for or are we too pampered?